The daily average high (red line) and low (blue line) temperature, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted lines are the corresponding average perceived temperatures.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on May. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Clouds

The month of May in Lawrence experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 43% throughout the month.

The clearest day of the month is May 31, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 58% of the time.

For reference, on February 12, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 51%, while on August 27, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 72%.

The percentage of time spent in each cloud cover band, categorized by the percentage of the sky covered by clouds.

Precipitation

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Lawrence, the chance of a wet day over the course of May is rapidly increasing, starting the month at 35% and ending it at 43%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 45% on June 8, and its lowest chance is 9% on January 12.

The percentage of days in which various types of precipitation are observed, excluding trace quantities: rain alone, snow alone, and mixed (both rain and snow fell in the same day).

Rainfall

To show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during May in Lawrence is increasing, starting the month at 4.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 6.9 inches or falls below 1.5 inches, and ending the month at 5.0 inches, when it rarely exceeds 8.4 inches or falls below 2.3 inches.

The average rainfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average liquid-equivalent snowfall.

Sun

Over the course of May in Lawrence, the length of the day is increasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day increases by 52 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 1 minute, 44 seconds, and weekly increase of 12 minutes, 5 seconds.

The shortest day of the month is May 1, with 13 hours, 50 minutes of daylight and the longest day is May 31, with 14 hours, 42 minutes of daylight.

The number of hours during which the Sun is visible (black line). From bottom (most yellow) to top (most gray), the color bands indicate: full daylight, twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and full night.

The latest sunrise of the month in Lawrence is 6:23 AM on May 1 and the earliest sunrise is 25 minutes earlier at 5:57 AM on May 31.

The earliest sunset is 8:13 PM on May 1 and the latest sunset is 26 minutes later at 8:39 PM on May 31.

Daylight saving time is observed in Lawrence during 2019, but it neither starts nor ends during May, so the entire month is in daylight saving time.

For reference, on June 21, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:55 AM and sets 14 hours, 54 minutes later, at 8:49 PM, while on December 22, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:36 AM and sets 9 hours, 26 minutes later, at 5:02 PM.

The solar day over the course of May. From bottom to top, the black lines are the previous solar midnight, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the next solar midnight. The day, twilights (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and night are indicated by the color bands from yellow to gray.

Humidity

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Lawrence is very rapidly increasing during May, rising from 3% to 24% over the course of the month.

For reference, on July 22, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 71% of the time, while on December 2, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

The percentage of time spent at various humidity comfort levels, categorized by dew point.

Wind

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Lawrence is decreasing during May, decreasing from 11.7 miles per hour to 10.2 miles per hour over the course of the month.

For reference, on April 1, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 12.8 miles per hour, while on August 7, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.3 miles per hour.

The percentage of hours in which the mean wind direction is from each of the four cardinal wind directions, excluding hours in which the mean wind speed is less than 1.0 mph. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries are the percentage of hours spent in the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).

Growing Season

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Lawrence typically lasts for 6.0 months (184 days), from around April 16 to around October 17, rarely starting before March 30 or after May 3, and rarely ending before September 26 or after November 6.

The month of May in Lawrence is more likely than not fully within the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season increasing from 88% to 100% over the course of the month.

The percentage of time spent in various temperature bands. The black line is the percentage chance that a given day is within the growing season.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Lawrence are rapidly increasing during May, increasing by 452°F, from 395°F to 847°F, over the course of the month.

The average growing degree days accumulated over the course of May, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Solar Energy

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Lawrence is essentially constant during May, remaining within 0.2 kWh of 6.4 kWh throughout.

The average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground per square meter (orange line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Topography

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Lawrence are 38.972 deg latitude, -95.235 deg longitude, and 846 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Lawrence contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 246 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 861 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (354 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (869 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Lawrence is covered by artificial surfaces (76%) and cropland (23%), within 10 miles by cropland (63%) and trees (19%), and within 50 miles by cropland (57%) and grassland (19%).

Data Sources

This report illustrates the typical weather in Lawrence year round, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016.

Temperature and Dew Point

There are 4 weather stations near enough to contribute to our estimation of the temperature and dew point in Lawrence.

The estimated value at Lawrence is computed as the weighted average of the individual contributions from each station, with weights proportional to the inverse of the distance between Lawrence and a given station.

Other Data

All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid.

Disclaimer

The information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site.

We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands.

We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader.